"He cannot live without a world."
-Ralph Waldo EmersonIgnorance is the greatest obstacle preventing the world from collectively engaging the crisis of climate change. That is why information is the most important tool we have to combat climate change. Large scale collective action will only come once people understand the issues and the concomitant solutions. No one epitomized the effort to educate the business community on the subject of sustainability more than the late Ray Anderson who died in 2011. Anderson tirelessly promoted the idea that sustainability is good for business. He advocated an approach that “takes nothing from the earth that cannot be replaced by the earth.” As the founder and chairman of the commercial carpet company Interface, Anderson cut the company's greenhouse gas emissions by 94 percent, cut fossil fuel consumption by 60 percent, cut waste by 80 percent, increased sales, doubled earnings and re-invented the way carpets are made, sold and recycled. That is why Anderson's books are on the top of the list of the 100 most sustainable books in the world.
Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist by Ray Anderson
Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose–Doing Business by Respecting the Earth by Ray Anderson
Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise by Ray Anderson
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough
Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins
The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken
Blessed Unrest – How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw it Coming by Paul Hawken
Strategy for sustainability: A Business Manifesto by Adam Werbach
Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto by Steward Brand
The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Solve Our Two Biggest Problems by Van Jones
The Responsible Business by Carol Sanford
The Sustainable MBA: The Manager’s Guide to Green Business by Giselle Weybrecht
Climate Capitalism: Global Warming and the Transformation of the Global Economy by Peter Newell and Matthew Paterson
Strategies for the Green Economy: Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business by Joel Makower
The Business Guide to Sustainability: Practical Strategies and Tools for Organizations by Darcy Hitchcock and Marsha Willard
Green Outcomes in a Real World by Peter McManners
Mindfully Green: A Personal and Spiritual Guide to Whole Earth Thinking By Stephanie Kaza
Sustainable Value: How the World’s Leading Companies Are Doing Well by Doing Good by Chris Laszlo
Making Sustainability Work: Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts by Marc Epstein
Sustainable Excellence – The Future of Business in a Fast-Changing World by Aron Cramer and Zachary Karabell
Strategy for Sustainability – A Business Manifesto by Adam Werbach
Green Recovery by Andrew Winston
The Next Sustainability Wave: Building Boardroom Buy-in by Bob Willard, Hunter Lovins
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus
Green to Gold Daniel Esty, Daniel and Andrew Winston
The Green to Gold Business Playbook by Daniel Esty and PJ Simmons
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows
Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben
Eaarth – Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben
The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community by David C. Korten
The Civil Corporation: The New Economy of Corporate Citizenship by Simon Zadek
Making Sustainability Work: Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental and Economic Impacts by Marc J. Epstein
The Necessary Revolution: How individuals and organizations are working together to create a sustainable world by Peter Senge et al.
The Triple Bottom Line: How Today’s Best Run Companies are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Succes–And How You Can, Too by Andrew Savitz
The Sustainability Advantage: Seven Business Case Benefits of a Triple Bottom Line by Bob Willard
The Triple Bottom Line – How Today’s Best-Run Companies are Achieving Economic, Social, and Environmental Success by Andrew Savitz
The Sustainability Revolution – Portrait of a Paradigm Shift by Andres R. Edwards
Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life by Robert Reich
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by L. Hunter Lovins
Climate Capitalism by Hunter Lovins & Boyd Cohen
Reinventing Fire by Amory Lovins
Strategies for the Green Economy : Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business by Joel Makower - McGraw-Hill (October 5, 2008)
Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto by Adam Werbach - Harvard Business Press
Next Generation Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid: New Approaches for Building Mutual Value by Ted Landon
Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs by Muhammad Yunus
Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus
The Crisis of Global Capitalism by George Soros
Factor Four by Ernst von Weizsäcker, Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins
Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, and Success by R. Edward Freeman
The HIP Investor: Make Bigger Profits by Building a Better World by Paul Herman
Leading Change Toward Sustainability by Bob Doppelt
Investing in a Sustainable World: Why Green is the New Color of Money on
Wall Street by Matt Kiernan, Ph.D
Leading Change by John P. Kotter
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution by Auden Schendler
Now or Never – Why We Must Act Now to End Climate Change and Create a Sustainable Future by Tim Flannery
Ecological Economic: Principles and Applications by Herman E. Daly and Joshua Farley
The Clean Tech Revolution by Ron Parnick and Clint Wilder
Ethical Markets – Creating the Green Economy by Hazel Henderson
Plan B 4.0 – Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble by Lester R. Brown
The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of a Learning Organization, by Peter Senge
The Necessary Revolution – How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World by Peter Senge
Getting Green Done – Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution by Auden Schendler
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard
Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual by Bill Mollison and Reny Mia Slay
Design Is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable by Nathan Shedroff
The Philosophy of Sustainable Design by Jason E Mclennan
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs
Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach
Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World by Gary Hirschberg
Values Driven Business: How You Change the World, Make Money, and Have Fun by Ben Cohen and Mal Warwick
The SmallMart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition by Michael Shuman
Greed to Green by David Gottfried
75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make a Difference by Glenn Croston, Ph.D.
Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur by scott cooney
The Economics of Climate Change by Nicholas Stern
Value Shift: Why Companies Must Merge Social and Financial Imperatives to Achieve Superior Performance by Lynn Sharp Paine
The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy by Lisa Dodson
The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society by Frans De Waal
The Market for Virtue: The Potential And Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility by David Vogel
Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman
What Matters Most by Jeff Hollender and Stephen Fenichell.
Good to Great by Jim Collins
The Soul in a Computer by Barbara Waugh
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by R. Buckminster Fuller
The Truth About Green Business by Gil Friend
The Sustainability Handbook – The Complete Management Guide to Achieving Social, Economic, and Environmental Responsibility by William Blackburn.
The Responsibility Revolution – How the Next Generation of Business Will Win by Jeffrey Hollender
Blue Covenant – The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water, Maude Barlow
Citizen Engineer, A Handbook for Socially Responsible Engineering by Dave Douglas and Dave Papadopoulos,
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, by Yvon Chouinard
Hometown Money: How to Enrich Your Community with Local Currency by Paul Glover.
Climb the Green Ladder: Make Your Company and Career More Sustainable by Amy V. Fetzer and Shari Aaron
Designing Sustainable Packaging by Steve Serling
Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies! by Eric Corey Freed
Cannibals With Forks: 21st Century of Triple Bottom Line Business by John Elkington
The Compassionate Carnivore: Or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald’s Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint, and Still Eat Meat by Catherine Frien
Diet for a New America by John Robbins
In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollen
Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered by Woody Tasch
Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Switch by Chip and Dan Heath,
SuperCorp by Rosabeth Kanter
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky,
Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Unsafe At Any Speed by Ralph Nader
The Population Bomb by Paul L. Ehrlich
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by R. Buckminster Fuller
The Limits to Growth by Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers and William W. Behrens III
Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher
Gaia by James Lovelock
The Turning Point by Fritjof Capra
Our Common Future (‘The Brundtland Report’) by the World Commission on Environment and Development
The Dream of the Earth by Thomas Berry
A Fate Worse Than Debt by Susan George
Staying Alive by Vandana Shiva
Blueprint for a Green Economy by David Pearce, Anil Markandya and Edward B. Barbier
For the Common Good by Herman Daly and John B. Cobb Jr
Human Scale Development by Manfred Max-Neef
Changing Course by Stephan Schmidheiny and Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD)
Maverick by Ricardo Semler
When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten
Biomimicry by Janine M. Benyus
Cannibals with Forks by John Elkington
The Hungry Spirit by Charles Handy
False Dawn by John Gray
Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen
No Logo by Naomi Klein
The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjørn Lomborg
Globalization and its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz
The Corporation by Joel Bakan
Presence by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad
The River Runs Black by Elizabeth C. Economy
Capitalism as if the World Matters by Jonathon Porritt
Capitalism at the Crossroads by Stuart L. Hart
Collapse Jared Diamond
The End of Poverty Jeffrey D. Sachs
The Chaos Point by Ervin Laszlo
Heat by George by Monbiot
An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore
When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce
The End of Money and the Future of Civilization by Thomas Greco
My Footprint by Jeff Garlin
Sustainable Event Management by Meegan Jones
The Blue Economy by Gunter Pauli - the 2010 report of the Club of Rome
Leading Change Toward Sustainability by Bob Doppelt (foreward by the aforementioned William McDonough)
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Delivering Tomorrow - Towards a Sustainable Future published by DHL
The Moneyless Man by Mark Boyle
Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne
GrassRoutes Northern California Wine Country: Green Road Trips by Serena Bartlett
Boiling Point by K.L. Dionne
Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America by Nick Rosen
The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food and Love by Kristin Kimball - Scribner
The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey - Anchor
The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir (P.S.) by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Eco-Resorts: Planning and Design for the Tropics by Zbigniew Bromberek
© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.
